Friday, October 21, 2016

At the third and final debate in Las Vegas
tonight, Trump proved his incompetence in front of the nation. Aside from
proving that he has no clear ideas on policy or how to run this country, he
also demonstrated (unfortunately, not for the final time) that he is a
misogynist. On top of all of his ridiculous comments about women’s bodies, the
sexual assault accusations against him and confirmed accounts of walking in on
teenagers changing, his most shirking moment came as he called Hillary, “such a
nasty woman” with a lowered voice, as she was mid-sentence, in front of the
entire country.

In this moment, Trump’s true
feelings on women could not have come across any clearer—to him, and men like
him, women should be seen and not heard. They should only be seen until he
wants to look at them, (I’m guessing for Trump this is from about age 15 to 30)
and after this there is no place for women in Trump’s world. They should be
discarded, kicked out and replaced—on to the next wife.

As Hillary
talked about raising taxes on the wealthy and then empowering women through the
Affordable Care Act, Trump attempted to overpower her with aggression, saying,
“Such a nasty woman,” in a dejected, snarky tone—on two separate occasions. The
comment was uttered in a similar way with which he repeated, “it is so sad” or
“so bad” throughout the night, in response to everything from the economy to
immigration.

Donald Trump is the Zika mosquito in America’s ear.

His blatant disrespect of women is
something we need to keep in check. His brand of misogyny threatens to spill
over into policy, taking rights away from all women and setting us back 100
years (when America was “great”). This is the crux of Trump, and why we need to
fear all candidates like him. He threatens to take control of a woman’s right
to choose with blanket statements and scare tactics, as though abortions happen
four days before birth. His followers and the men who think like him are unable
to see things beyond black and white, or nasty women and sweet ones.

Unable to
compete fairly with Hillary, as he cannot match her record or begin to approach
her intellect, Trump reverts to schoolyard bullying tactics, hurling insults
that would be considered below the belt in any forum, let alone a national
debate. And as he is a disenfranchised male, powerless to his own
self-destruction, his only approach is to claim the election is rigged. Woe is
Trump.

His other idea?
Call Hillary “such a nasty woman” because he cannot match her, because he does
not want to have sex with her, and because she is beating him fair and square.
Trump is the little boy on the playground, losing to a girl and calling her
mean—but not as lighthearted as that. Calling Hillary “such a nasty woman,” not
to mention interrupting her mid-sentence, was meant to throw her off her game.
That comment was a blatant disrespect of all women, everywhere.

Its digs like
this that show—arguably even more than the “pussy grabbing” comments—that he is
outwardly hateful of women. Trump is in crisis mode, as he should be. There is
no way that American women (and men) are going to stand idly by as his
1940s-style rhetoric of where a woman belongs, or how a woman should behave, goes
unchecked. He doesn’t just think Hillary is nasty; he thinks all women not
kissing up to him (or letting him kiss them without their consent) are
nasty.

The Hillary
Clinton camp is not going to let Trump's insults go quietly. In a genius turn
of events, the campaign immediately bought the sitenastywomengetshitdone.com, which
redirects to Clinton's official website. By re-appropriatingthe term "nasty," Clinton
and women everywhere are asserting that casual sexist lingo is not okay; no,
Mr. Trump, you cannot call Hillary "nasty," or insult Ruth Bader
Ginsberg because she does not agree with you.

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Disclaimer

What I post here is intended only as a forum to discuss ideas. Please be aware that referred to research or sources evolve over time so the documents referred to on this blog may be superseded by new information.

Oh, and BTW I use the following broad definition of Health Literacy:“A health literate person is able to use health concepts and information generatively—applying information to novel situations. This is critical to our efforts to prepare the public to react to complex public health emergencies.”(From invited paper presented by me - Surgeon General’s Report on Health Literacy, September 7 2006, Bethesda Maryland http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/healthliteracy/toc.html)